The Skeleton Haunts a House by Leigh Perry

The Skeleton Haunts a House (Family Skeleton Mystery, #3)

by Leigh Perry

Sid the Skeleton bones up on clues to solve a Haunted House homicide in this mystery from the author of The Skeleton Takes a Bow

What holiday could bring more warmth to a skeleton’s chest cavity than Halloween? And when you’re a living skeleton who’s not supposed to be seen outside the house, it’s a welcome chance to get some fresh air and rub bony elbows with people. That’s why Sid doesn’t mind wearing a full-body dog suit and going as Scooby-Doo along with Georgia Thackery’s Velma to the Halloween Howl.

Sid can’t wait to go through the Haunted House—but he gets rattled for real when a genuine dead body is discovered. Trapped inside as the police quickly seal off the crime scene, Sid makes no bones about dropping the dog suit and posing as an actual skeleton. This murder is a skull-scratcher, but as long as Sid is on the inside, he might as well case the joint to figure out who used the cover of darkness to commit the perfect crime…

Reviewed by Silvara on

4 of 5 stars

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I received this book for free from Berkley Prime Crime in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.


I thought since I haven't read any of the other books in the series, that the reason Georgia called her father by his first name was explained in one of them. Since after reading a few chapters, my first guess (that he was her step-dad) turned out to be incorrect. But it kind of bugged me because she called her mom, Mom, and no one else in the family called her dad by his first name. And then it was finally explained, around 90 pages into the book.

It really threw me out of the story every time I saw him named instead of a more typical dad/father/etc. So for the explanation to wait until almost a third of the way through bugged me. Fortunately, that was the only thing I didn't like about the book!

I had a random thought early on that "so-and-so did it!", just being silly since there was no reason for that character to have done it at the point I thought it. And then when it turned out I was right, I had to laugh. I really liked how the mystery unfolded though. And I liked getting to know how a haunted house worked behind the scenes.

There were a lot of laugh-out-loud moments, and I loved Sid. I also liked getting to know Georgia and her family. Their relationships were well done, and I could easily see how they all fit together. Once you start the book you get sucked in and want to read it all in one sitting.

If you haven't read anything in this series yet, you need to do so. I'll be picking up the first books myself soon.

This review was originally posted on Fantasy of the Silver Dragon

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  • 15 October, 2015: Reviewed